The Shared Blog Of Zaide Bishop and Olivia Kyle. Updates Mondays and Thursdays.

Monday, August 7, 2017

101 Ways To Live Better: Organize Your Space

Welcome to
my 101 series, which explores 101 little things you can do to improve your day
to day life, and the world, just a little bit.

Our fifth post is: ORGANIZE YOUR SPACE

Everything
you own should have a home, somewhere in your house where it belongs. That
includes your handbag or wallet, incoming and outgoing mail, your remote
controls, your keys, your shoes and all those other miscellaneous things that
end up lying around on the dining table and kitchen bench. After all, its very
hard to tidy your house and put things away if they don’t have anywhere to go!

I am a firm
believer in the KonMari method of cleaning out clutter, which boils down to
clearing your home of everything you don’t use and don’t love. Paperwork that
must be kept can be scanned and stored digitally, but for a few vital documents
like birth certificates. Clothes that don’t fit, that you don’t love, that
don’t suit you, should all be donated. You don’t need as many clothes as you
think. I have two dresses, about ten shirts and five pairs of pants. I don’t
own any skirts. I also have three jackets and two pairs of shoes. That, for me,
is plenty for all seasons and all occasions. Buying new clothes is a big deal
for me and I only buy good quality things I can wear most days.

Even if you
don’t like the KonMari method, it still helps a lot to have places to put
everything, to make life more manageable.

If you are
like most people, you will struggle to find homes for everything simply because
there is not enough space in your house. However, it will be easy if you have
cleaned out all those hundreds of items you don’t like, don’t need and never
use.

I am someone
who can’t tolerate what is referred to as ‘visual noise’. Remember when you
were a teenager and you put up a collage of your favourite bands and actors on
your wall? Or maybe you have a displace case full of trinkets. Or stacks of
books everywhere.

I find that
stressful. I like empty spaces and clean lines. So, my workspace is quite
sparse with one or two focal items that I love.

Yours
doesn’t have to be. Some people love visual noise and having collections and
art all around them in a riot of colour and shapes. That’s great too, but make
sure all the things around you are things you have chosen. There is a huge
difference between posters and figurines from your favourite movies and a pile
of dirty washing you haven’t put away.

It is also
important a space be functional to you and what you want to use it for. Before
decorating and arranging a space, write down how you would like to spend your
time in it, what its function is going to be.

If you want
your dining room to be a place where the family connects, don’t situate the
table in a way everyone can still see the TV. If you want your office to be
where you work, don’t store the kids’ toys, or set up your Xbox in there.

Sitting down
and really thinking about how you want to use your spaces, will probably lead
to you thinking about what is most important to you in life, how you wish you
were spending your time. You might decide to get rid of your TV completely! Or
at least put it in a cupboard you can close, so it’s not always there—a huge
unblinking void in the middle of your space.

Not me
though, I love my TV. Mine pivots so I can see it while I am cooking and while
I am on the treadmill, but I also use it for audio books and music.

Organize
your space and take pride in it, it’s your space, organized for your needs, not
just a dumping ground for your stuff.